returned from his German dominions in November, having
landed near Margate, in Kent, after a dangerous passage; and on the
twenty-ninth of the same month he opened the session of parliament. By
this time the misunderstanding between the two first personages of the
royal family had been increased by a fresh succession of matter. The
prince of Wales had held a court of Stannary, in quality of duke of
Cornwall; and revived some claims attached to that dignity, which, had
they been admitted, would have greatly augmented his influence among
the Cornish boroughs. These efforts roused the jealousy of the
administration, which had always considered them as an interest wholly
dependent on the crown; and, therefore, the pretensions of his
royal highness were opposed by the whole weight of the ministry. His
adherents, resenting these hostilities as an injury to their royal
master, immediately joined the remnant of the former opposition in
parliament, and resolved to counteract all the ministerial measures that
should fall under their cognizance; at least, they determined to seize
every opportunity of thwarting the servants of the crown, in every
scheme or proposal that had not an evident tendency to the advantage of
the nation. This band of auxiliaries was headed by the earl of E----t,
Dr. Lee, and Mr. N----t. The first possessed a species of eloquence
rather plausible than powerful; he spoke with fluency and fire; his
spirit was bold and enterprising, his apprehension quick, and
his repartee severe. Dr. Lee was a man of extensive erudition and
irreproachable morals, particularly versed in the civil law, which he
professed, and perfectly well acquainted with the constitution of his
country. Mr. N----t was an orator of middling abilities, who harangued
upon all subjects indiscriminately, and supplied with confidence what he
wanted in capacity; he had been at some pains to study the business of
the house, as well as to understand the machine of government; and was
tolerably well heard, as he generally spoke with an appearance of
good humour, and hazarded every whimsical idea as it arose in his
imagination. But lord Bolingbroke is said to have been the chief spring
which, in secret, actuated the deliberations of the prince's court.
That nobleman, seemingly sequestered from the tumults of a public life,
resided at Battersea, where he was visited like a sainted shrine by all
the distinguished votaries of wit, eloquence, and political amb